The Sun goes down on Gordon Brown

By Daily Maverick Legacy• 30 September 2009

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has suffered a real setback when The Sun newspaper opted to back the Conservative Party in the next election.
The paper says today that "after 12 long years in power, Labour has lost its way and
now it has lost us too". A tad huffy, British home secretary Alan Johnson responded that it’s voters that decide elections not newspapers, while the BBC's political editor noted that the paper had timed its big political switch for maximum impact “both in terms of gaining attention for the paper and taking the gloss off Mr Brown's big day". The Sun's own political editor explained to the Beeb, that in 2005 the paper had "warned Labour that it had one last
chance... to prove it was the right party for the country. We've now decided after four more years, and particularly after the prime minister's underwhelming performance in his conference speech, that it was time to take a verdict and announce that to the nation.” Shadow politics can be a trifle tough it seems.